Actis Expects Renewable Push with Its Latest Energy Fund

Actis, an emerging markets-focused private equity firm, is looking to clean up power markets in developing economies with its third energy-focused fund.

The investment firm projects that two-thirds of its latest $1.15 billion fund will be spent on power generation and that roughly 75% of that money will be spent on renewable power projects, according to Actis partner and co-head of the firm’s energy practice, Michael Till.

Renewables are already the fastest-growing power generation sector and will make up nearly 25% of the world’s power mix by 2018, according to the IEA.

“It’s not a specific objective, but just where we’re seeing the opportunities today across a lot of our markets,” Mr. Till said. “Wind power has become competitive in quite a lot of markets, especially where baseload power generation is set by more expensive technologies.”

Not only is wind competitive from a pricing standpoint but these projects take much less development time than their hydrocarbon-based corollaries, he said.

“We’re entering a new era,” said Mr. Till. “For the duration of this fund, we will see mostly renewable investment.”

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